March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

IP makes first installment on back pay settlement

JAY — Less than a week before workers vote on whether to oust unions from International Paper Co.’s Androscoggin mill, the company has paid the first installment in a back-pay settlement worth up to $2 million.

Union leaders on Friday hailed the first payment as an example of how they’ve effectively represented paper mill workers. But the company charged that the unions refused to participate in the settlement and tried to block it.

The announcement that 203 former IP strikers would begin receiving checks from the back-pay settlement — and the new round of charges — came as campaigning heats up for next week’s union decertification vote at the Jay mill.

Workers at the mill will vote Thursday and Friday on whether they want to continue to be represented by Local 14 of the United Paperworkers International Union and Local 246 of the International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers.

International Paper announced that it has made the first installment of $600,000 to the National Labor Relations Board in the back-pay settlement and would forward the remainder of the money within several days.

The company estimates that the settlement will amount to less than $1.5 million, but the Paperworkers union contends it will be worth nearly $2 million.

The settlement is meant to resolve an unfair labor practice charge involving the allegedly illegal transfer, promotion and hiring of replacement workers over union members just after a bitter 16-month strike ended in October 1988.

Felix Jacques, president of Local 14, said the back pay is to compensate former strikers who should have been recalled to work after the strike ended.

He said the checks will range from as low as $7 to as much as $41,000, and that the average union member covered by the settlement will receive almost $10,000.

The company said in a statement that the unions “refused to participate in and repeatedly tried to block this settlement.”

Jacques disputed that and countered: “The company fought the unions tooth and nail over this, and it has taken us four long years to get the money. These checks demonstrate the real value of union representation.”

Jeff Young, an attorney for Local 14, contended the unions did not sign off on the settlement because the agreement only requires the company to pay 80 percent of what was actually owed to the ex-strikers.

“We believe that IP broke the law, and they should be required to pay 100 percent,” Young said. “If they had paid 100 percent, we would have signed. The truth is, IP dragged its feet for four years in settling this case …”


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